RE: Mysterious post-spawning disease

["Maladorno, Dionigi" <DIONIGI.MALADORNO@roche.com>]

Well, at this point it seems that respiration problems are the common
denominator for the cases that have been described, being followed by
dropsy in some cases, but not always. It might be that fish die before
there is time for dropsy to develop, or that we are dealing with two
separate issues. Regardless of that, the systematic use of a preventive
treatment for gill parasites would in my opinion help to narrow down the
possible explanations by ruling out a very common source of respiratory
problems. I have no idea what is the natural history of gill fluke
infestations in Apistos: in Discus infestations may be subclinical for a
long time, until some for of stress causes a flare-up. No dropsy is
described in association with gill flukes, but gills are indeed a
critical organ in the maintenance of the fluid balance in the organism,
and it does not seem to me totally implausible that in some fish gill
damage  is associated with things such as edema/fluid retention/dropsy.
This is clearly just a very hypothetical thought, I have no facts to
support it and it would be interesting to know if anyone considers this
thought totally implausible.

I quarantine all my fish, and treat them preventively with a
metronidazole cycle for ciliates (I do not have my books with me now,
but if I remember well some ciliates may affect gills) and then with
repeated cycles of a compound active on tapeworms, flukes and nematodes
(flubendazole or Fluke Tabs or praziquantel).

The reason I joined this list is that I recently (a month ago) acquired
a pair of A. cacatuoides, which tolerated the above treatment very well.
Yesterday I discovered that the female is watching some wigglers
attached to the roof of a small flowerpot, so I guess it seems that
fertility was not impaired. 

By the way, since they did it in the 5 gal tank that was supposed to be
for quarantine only, I have with this pair five rummynose tetras and a
male checkerboard ciclid (D. filamentosum). I guess I should remove
them, right? Or, should I leave the rummynose as dither fish? Thanks to
those who responded to my previous post.


Dionigi